Dexter and Mandark Trip the Realm
by Satine89
Summary: The true sequel to Something I Believe In. Dexter creates a device to go to ten different worlds. Mandark steals it before it's completed and sends the two of them hurtling through various dimensions. How will they get home to Nora? OCs present, AU.
1. La Machine

**La Machine**

The day was as normal as any day ever was at Dexter McPhearson's school. Dee-Dee, his blonde and ditzy sister, made sure that she was as annoying as possible around him, and Mandark Astronominov, his raven-haired rival in everything, continued to bicker constantly with him. There was also Douglas Mordechai, one of the few people Dexter trusted, and Nora Debussi.

Nora was a complicated beast. A transfer student who was practically guaranteed her family's fortune when she turned eighteen, Nora was an unspectacular-looking girl with freckles and a tendency to keep important things to herself and overreact to not-so-important things. However, Dexter had always been uncannily drawn to her intelligence. You could say that Dexter had a crush on Nora.

But Nora was one thing Dexter couldn't have. For one thing, Nora trusted Dexter like a little brother, holding no amorous affection towards him whatsoever. For another, Nora was Mandark's girlfriend, a fact that Mandark liked to rub in Dexter's face every once in a while.

Dexter was sick of it. He was sick of Mandark giving Dexter a cocky smile every time Nora wrapped herself around him. Sick of Nora talking incessantly about him. Sick of thinking that Mandark had beaten him in something so all-consuming.

Dexter was in a foul mood when he got home that day. He didn't know what he was expecting to see when he walked past Nora and Mandark in a secluded spot on the school grounds, but it didn't change the fact that what he saw made his stomach hurt and his head spin angrily.

Dexter tromped up the staircase, seething. Dee-Dee was skipping around in the living room and noticed Dexter's sadness.

"What's wrong, Dexter?" Dee-Dee inquired in her bright tone.

Dexter paused, his purple-gloved hand trembling on the railing. "…Nothing."

"That's a whole lot of nothing," Dee-Dee noted.

"Just Mandark," Dexter spat out. He'd never felt so much contempt for one person in his short lifetime. Hot jealously burbled inside of him, and his eyes narrowed.

Dee-Dee sighed. "Whatever."

She returned to her jubilant dancing while Dexter was left alone with his thoughts. He tried to busy himself by working in the laboratory, but the activities that used to bring such joy were now dull and pointless to him. Dexter wearily set down his wrench near Computer, his breathing shallow.

"Are you all right, Dexter?" Computer asked curiously.

"No, Computer, I am not all right," Dexter responded drearily.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Computer wondered.

Dexter paused. There were only three people in the world that Dexter could trust: Douglas, Nora, and Computer. Douglas was not one who swooned over girls or even remotely cared. Any time Nora had been brought up in their conversations, Douglas would scoff. And Dexter wasn't about to tell Nora about anything. Much as she had hurt him, it was unintentional, and Dexter did value her friendship.

Dexter sat down in front of computer. "Oh, Computer, my love, it is ridiculous! That beautiful girl that I was telling you about, Nora Debussi – she doesn't know how much she's breaking my heart!"

"I don't quite understand," Computer admitted.

Dexter inhaled slowly, his features contorting into an angered form. "Mandark took her. Nora is in love with my rival, that _idiot_." Dexter put extra emphasis on the word. "He's never beaten me before this, and to have him defeat me, especially concerning so important to me and my heart…"

Dexter trailed off. He regained his composure quickly. "But… I can't try to break them up. Then I lose Nora as a friend, and I don't want anything of the sort to happen."

"Why don't you invent something, to take your mind off of it?" Computer suggested in her soothing voice.

Dexter shrugged and wandered off to another part of the laboratory. Slowly, the beginnings of a plan formed in his head. He was soon smiling in a completely demonic manner. Dexter dashed back to the center of his lab.

"Computer!" Dexter cried cheerfully. "I have a wonderful plan! Quick, bring me the solder iron and some scrap metal!"

The solder iron and various pieces of metal fell down beside Dexter. He ripped some wiring out of a spool underneath one of the floor tiles, and found a microchip nearby. Dexter smiled.

"There's nothing wrong with a little escapism once in a while," Dexter justified his actions. Computer only watched blankly.

…

Mandark pressed his hand against Dexter's window quietly. He took a look in, his glasses reflecting in the moonlight. His raven black hair blended in with the night sky, as if it was one with the cloak of night. Mandark tried to prod the window open with his finger, but it was stuck. Mandark sighed. There he was, up on the roof of Dexter's house, feet precariously lodged in a gutter, and he couldn't open the window.

Mandark shook his head, letting his fingers feel around for the bottom of the window. He found it, curled his fingers under it, and pushed Dexter's window open. Satisfied, Mandark leapt into his nemesis' room, taking time to savor his victory. He thought of how good it was going to be when he snuck into Dexter's lab and ruined whatever he was doing – or if he took something from him! Imagine!

He'd be able to brag about –

Mandark stopped. It's hard to brag about something if you have so few friends. And Nora wouldn't be very happy to hear about it. She wanted Mandark to stop attacking Dexter, since the two of them were her closest friends.

He almost considered stopping, because of Nora. He didn't want to lose the best thing that ever happened to him, no matter how badly he needed to show up Dexter. Mandark briefly pondered what would happen to him if Nora wasn't in his life, and didn't like what he saw. Nora would probably be snatched up by someone he wouldn't be able to stand – like Carter Richardson, the popular surfer boy who had asked her out plenty of times before. Or Dexter.

Mandark seethed before realizing where he was and why he had come. He redirected his focus. The plan.

Mandark pulled a book out of the bookshelf, letting it fall onto the wooden paneling of the shelf. An electronic beep ringed in Mandark's ears, and the bookshelf swung open, granting him entrance. Mandark giggled as he snuck around the various white columns, hiding himself.

Mandark finally sighted Dexter. He was frantically working on some sort of new invention, and he looked really excited about the whole thing. By Mandark's calculations, he was close to finishing. It didn't take an idiot to figure out that taking his new invention would be a huge blow to Dexter's ego.

Mandark began to creep up on Dexter. Dexter stopped working long enough to sigh.

"Is there a reason you're here?" Dexter inquired blankly.

Mandark fumed. "You think you're so great! Well, one day, I'll defeat you for good, and then the world –"

"The world will be ruled by you, yes, very well then," Dexter interrupted mockingly. "I'm sorry, Mandark, but you're just an idiot."

Dexter put down his device, swiveling his chair around to look at Mandark, who was muttering some decidedly evil-sounding things. Dexter shook his head wearily.

"Look, can you just go home? I've had a bad day," Dexter pleaded lightly. Mandark narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, I'll just – NO I WILL NOT GO HOME!" Mandark countered angrily. With a short dash, Mandark reached Dexter's new device and swiped it.

"What are you doing?!" Dexter cried out, trying to get his invention back. Mandark grinned snidely as he held it up in the air. Dexter could jump all he wanted, but he'd never be able to reach.

"Hah! Ha ha! A ha ha a ha ha!" Mandark laughed. It grated on Dexter's nerves. Computer, if she had thumbs, would have twiddled them. She felt useless.

"Give it to me!" Dexter cried.

"…I don't think so," Mandark responded, looking at it. "Hmm… wonder what this thing does?"

Mandark aimed the device at the ceiling and pressed a pulsing green button on its interface. Dexter tried to scream out a warning, but it was far too late. Mandark and Dexter floated up into the air, and, with a short burst of blue sparks, they disappeared.

A/N: I always HATED 'A Place of My Own'. It was, for a brief time, the story I wanted to tell. But I really wasn't ready to embark into the world of Dexter/Mandark, particularly when Vindaloo and The Rival were able to convey it so beautifully. When I lost the files to it in a virus attack, I didn't miss it. But I knew I wanted to continue the story of Dexter and Mandark in relation to Nora…

One fateful night about a month ago, I dreamed up a scene where Mandark and Dexter confronted each other in a wooded area, in Puritanical times, screaming about Nora and the whole situation being each other's fault.

The scene (which will be in the story, don't worry) became the story you're reading right now. This tale, I am confident, continues 'Something I Believe In Miracle Romance' the way I want it to… and although the whole story seems straightforward now, this whole tale will become a mess, just the way I like it. ;)

A/N 2: On an unrelated note, I would like to congratulate the few authors who have ventured into this fandom during my absence. I read most of your guys' stories, and I'm happy to say that I enjoyed all of them!

A/N 3: Okay, I know I'm getting grating, but I have to mention this – Dexter. His last name. Is it canonically McPhearson?

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Laboratory. Can you imagine if I did? Lord, what a mess that'd be…


	2. Tales from Another World

**Tales from Another World**

Mandark and Dexter landed rump-first in a vast wasteland of sand. Mandark's first reaction was that they had landed on Tatooine; Dexter knew far better, and his face grew pallid just thinking of what had just happened.

"You created a planetary teleportation device?" Mandark asked. "Ultimately cool, despite the fact that you made it…"

"We're not on another planet, you idiot," Dexter spat quickly. "Look at your clothes."

Mandark did as told. He noticed that he was wearing white Arabian-like pants – similar to Dexter's – and a tattered blue shirt with no sleeves. All the better; it was stiflingly hot anyways. Mandark gaped at himself.

"What -?"

"I created a realm-tripping device," Dexter angrily told him, "with ten individual worlds stored inside it. But I didn't have time to finish it before YOU took it and decided to be an idiot with it! There's no return button! We're stuck in these worlds until we figure out how to leave them!"  
Dexter had spoken so quickly that Mandark was left shaking his head in confusion. "…What?"

"An unfinished realm-tripping device," Dexter repeated. "We're stuck here."

"We're stuck inside your device?"

"That covers it."

Mandark and Dexter glared at each other.

"Well, you should have told me that before we got stuck here," Mandark frowned.

Dexter gaped at him. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT?!"

Mandark ignored the spluttering Dexter and took some tentative steps. His feet sunk into the searing grains, burning the tops of his feet. Mandark winced. Dexter strode briskly past him, observing his surroundings.

"We're in the first world," Dexter informed him. "Arabia."

"We're in Arabia," Mandark repeated. "Like, in Aladdin?"

"I hope so. Because the real Arabia was –"

" – Slightly vicious."

Mandark and Dexter looked at each other.

"Don't complete my sentences again," Dexter demanded.

"Fair enough." Mandark continued to walk around in the sand, occasionally looking up at the afternoon sky. "From the position of the sun right now, I'd say that north is that way. If we keep going north, we'll probably find a city of some sort."

Dexter neglected to tell Mandark that a large domed palace was clearly visible from their standpoint, instead following him with a malicious grin.

…

"You jerk," Mandark muttered upon arriving in the city. "You just wanted to see me make a fool of myself."

"Of course," Dexter shrugged. "Now, if I programmed my device correctly, we should see some people from our school in here."

"Dexter, I just want to go home. Nora will kill me if I don't call her," Mandark complained.

Dexter's face soured as the pair weaved through a crowded marketplace, filled with people bartering goods. As Mandark passed a haggard-looking man who couldn't figure out how to haggle (much to the shop master's chagrin), he allowed himself a victory grin.

"Face it, Dexter, I'm just better-looking than you," Mandark sneered.

"Because the competition was tough," a nearby shopkeeper cat-called at Mandark. Mandark whipped around angrily. Dexter took the opportunity to ditch him and run through the throngs of people in the marketplace. All kinds of makeshift booths greeted him, with their golden trinkets, pottery jugs, and metal decorations winking in the sunlight. Dexter was glad to be surrounded by unknown people – Mandark made for a horrid traveling companion, in Dexter's view. He looked at the ground briefly –

- and a masked figure slammed into him. Dexter glanced up to see the face of Natalie Faye, his tan, slightly violent classmate, staring at him from beneath her white shawl. Natalie immediately lifted Dexter up off the ground, all business.

"Excuse me, sir, but have you seen the Princess?" Natalie inquired.

"Princess? What princess?" Dexter asked in his typical drawl.

Natalie inspected Dexter quickly, rustling his red hair and looking at his face. "You're a foreigner."

"…Yes," Dexter murmured. It was true… in a manner of speaking.

Natalie pushed him against a nearby wall. A shopkeeper stomped over to her, eyes wide and face red.

"What are you doing, Lady Faye?" the shopkeeper inquired in a hushed voice. "You cannot just attack the foreigners whenever you please!"

So it was a recurring thing, Dexter thought. _Great._

"Princess Norako is missing!" Lady Faye spat crossly at the agitated merchant. "And our enemies are all around, what with the wars – how do I know he isn't here to deliver a ransom notice?"

The merchant sighed. "He has red hair. Clearly he comes from the West. Our enemies lie to the East, with the savage Mongols."

Lady Faye made a small noise before letting Dexter go. Dexter fell to the sandy floor below, coughing and gasping. Lady Faye watched him regain his breath and his dignity with a sneer.

"Do you know what Princess Norako looks like, foreigner?" Lady Faye demanded.

Dexter spat out some bile before looking into Lady Faye's large brown eyes. There was no doubt about it – Lady Faye was definitely Nora's close friend Natalie Faye, in looks and attitude. Dexter guessed that Lady Faye, in this world, _would_ be far more aggressive than the model he knew, whose habit of whacking people with rulers constituted the worst of her wrath. This was a totally different environment, after all.

"I'm sorry, no," Dexter finally replied.

"Sometimes she takes to wandering," Lady Faye informed Dexter. "Stupid girl."

The uptight trader, once again, was shocked. "Do not speak ill of Princess Norako! She's the light of our kingdom!"

"But if she doesn't marry, we're doomed," Lady Faye sighed. Dexter listened curiously as she sighed at the shopkeeper. "We can't arrange marriage meetings for her if she keeps wandering away from us, Uroyo!"

Dexter slipped away from Lady Faye and injected himself, once again, into the stream of Arabians in the marketplace. A hand grabbed his shoulder as soon as he hid himself amongst the people.

"Thought you could just ditch me, eh, McPhearson?!" Mandark spat, squeezing Dexter's shoulder painfully. Dexter turned around, glaring at Mandark.

"I found out that this kingdom's princess is missing," Dexter explained. "What did you find out?"

"That I can punch harder than I thought," Mandark responded.

"Good skill for a man," a female voice from beside them cooed, "but I wouldn't make a habit of beating on merchants, foreigner."

Mandark and Dexter turned to the mysterious woman. Most of her features were obscured by a veil draped over her nose and mouth, but her green eyes were prominent from beneath a blue shawl that matched her veil.

"He insulted me," Mandark managed to spit out, not looking away from her hypnotic eyes.

"The merchants down that avenue insult everyone," the woman sighed. "You really must be foreigners, if you don't know that."

"Who are you?" Dexter asked.

"Ra," the woman said. "Where are you from? The North? Or the West?"

"…The North-west," Mandark lied.

"Ah," Nora shrugged, walking ahead of the two boys. Mandark found himself choking on his own spit.

"My GOD, Dexter, she looks so real," Mandark marveled. "I would compliment you, but then you'd get a swelled head and start bragging and being generally annoying."

Dexter ignored him. "Of course she looks real. Do you think I'm a subpar scientist?"

"…Yes," Mandark whispered, so Dexter wouldn't hear.

Ra was on a singular course to nowhere, apparently, weaving through abandoned alleyways and hiding in the shadows fairly often.

"You aren't a criminal, are you?" Dexter thought to ask after Ra stopped beneath an arching structure to eat an apple. Mandark watched in awe as Ra dropped her veil away from her thin lips, biting into the fruit.

"You look –" Mandark began, but Ra cut him off, not hearing.

"Not a criminal, no," Ra murmured around mouthfuls of apple. "Just looking for something."

Mandark felt a chill run down his spine as apple juice ran down Ra's chin. For some reason, her sloppiness magnified her beauty.

"Did you just randomly create her?" Mandark questioned in a low voice. "Well, Dexter?"

Dexter rolled his eyes. "What would I have based these people off of?" The lie would have to do.

Mandark didn't seem to believe it, but he didn't question it, either. He just looked at Ra again, who was wiping juices off of her chin with a rag extracted from her ankle. It was the same shade of blue as her shawl. She coughed lightly before closing her eyes delicately. Her forehead sank, and one tiny red jewel, embedded into the bridge between her two eyes, became visible for a brief second. Mandark blinked. It was gone, and Ra had drawn herself up again.

"I don't understand why you two have chosen to follow me," Ra admitted. "Probably the fact that you have no idea where you are. But I have to warn you… things might get messy later on."

Dexter smirked. This was exactly how he'd imagined it would go, with Ra… or Princess Norako, the woman based completely off of Nora Debussi. Although the nagging fear that Mandark was catching on – or that he would see Lady Faye lurking about – lodged into the back of his throat, so far the machine had run perfectly. This scenario was perfectly tuned to his desires, just as he'd wished it.

"I'll –" Dexter began to say.

"Is this a trap?" Mandark interrupted.

A silence gripped Ra, and her eyes narrowed. Her cold glare stole the words out of Mandark's mouth and shredded them into nothingness.

A new thought formed in Dexter's mind. "If you take us to a place where we can stay, we won't ask any more questions."

Mandark gaped at him. Ra, however, stopped glaring so pointedly, and her cheekbones lifted. It must be a smile.

"All right then, red-headed foreigner."

"…Dexter," Dexter corrected.

Mandark's jaw dropped. "What the heck are you -?!"

"And this is Mandark," Dexter continued unabated.

Mandark grabbed his head in frustration. "Are you crazy?" He hissed this in Dexter's ear, completely flabbergasted.

Ra turned and began to lead Dexter and Mandark to an inn. Dexter now turned to an astounded Mandark.

"Trust me, I created this world," Dexter waved off Mandark's fears. "I think I know the risks."

"You think." Mandark wheeled around angrily. "Oh great. My life is in the hands of a sodding IDIOT."

"Sodding?" Dexter questioned. "What does that mean?"

"Freaking."

"Ah. It has a smarter air to it."

"That's why I used it."

Mandark stewed for a few seconds. "The truth is, Dexter, I don't trust you at –"

"PRINCESS!"

Lady Faye's voice was unmistakable. Ra's eyes widened precipitously, and Dexter swallowed some bile.

Mandark grinned uneasily. "As I was saying, I don't trust you at all, Dexter."

A/N: Now we get into the meat of the story – the realm-tripping itself. Each world is a ton of fun for me to envision and write… this world, the Arabian one, was influenced by Aladdin, but with less bursting into song. And here appears Natalie Faye, the one OC that left a lasting impression (literally?) on some Dexter's Lab writers.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Laboratory, although if I did, you'd all have to watch my episodes. I'd make you watch them. Hahaha.


	3. Losing Nora Again

**Losing Nora Again**

Ra's eyes widened abruptly, and she attempted to flee. Dexter was rooted to the ground, but Mandark wasn't. He ran after her, trying to get her attention. Her billowing shawl was awfully distracting to him, and it was even more distracting when she tripped and it flew into his face.

Mandark quickly tore it away and looked at Ra's slumped figure on the ground. Before long, the tan yelling girl was at Ra's side, pulling her face out of the ground, and a whole platoon of royal guards flanked them. Mandark felt his arms being yanked behind his back by a burly man, and winced.

"Princess Norako, what on EARTH were you THINKING?! Sneaking out of the palace like that?!" the tan girl yelled. Mandark thought it sounded a lot like Natalie Faye... his classmate…

It also looked a fair bit like Natalie Faye. And when a curtain of black hair toppled from the Princess' head, Mandark realized that he DID recognize her.

"Nora," he whispered.

"Is that your attacker? That foreigner?!" the doppelganger for Natalie demanded breathlessly.

"No, no Lady Faye, nothing of the sort," Princess Norako whimpered, turning her uncovered brow sideways. There were many jewels embedded along her eyebrow line, with a large red ruby on the bridge of her nose.

Mandark squirmed in his restraints. He had to talk to Dexter – that snot-faced liar! He DID take people from their home and put them into the worlds! This was his fantasy – no WONDER he'd wanted Mandark to…

The pale-faced, bespectacled boy dropped his head. He knew that both boys were at fault. It was more Dexter's, though, Mandark reassured himself. He'd invented the stupid –

Lady Faye yanked Mandark's chin away from his chest. A vein popped in his neck, and he bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain. Lady Faye turned his face sideways, apparently inspecting his person. Mandark flinched at the touch of her icy hand, a staff that pelted every spot she touched with frost and rime. She took this as an admission of guilt.

"You recoil from me so readily," Lady Faye spat. "You must have kidnapped the Princess for your own… gain." The word was laced with so many meanings that Mandark's head swam. One thought pierced through the nothingness:

_Where are you, Dexter McPhearson?!_

…

Dexter bit into a warm loaf of bread, sitting in a rented room wit a view of the exquisite palace. The bread's heat was the only warm thing in his stomach. He was a mess of guilt. He'd lost Mandark and this world's Nora after a guard slammed him into an alleyway. Dexter couldn't find his way back to where the group had been, ran into an innkeeper, and exchanged some coins in his pocket for food and board. There was no telling where anyone was.

Dexter couldn't shake the feeling that his device was betraying him, at that very moment, and that Mandark was with Nora, once again…

Dexter felt a shock run down his spine. Pushed by intuition, he thrust his head out of his window. There was Lady Faye, leading an utterly beaten Mandark to an execution block.

Dexter wasn't quite sure what to do, but his legs threw him out of his rented room and into the street. He crumpled up on the sidewalk with a thud, feeling blood cloud his glasses. The swishing of silk told him that Lady Faye had noticed the display.

"That window was only two meters up," she noted dryly. "The boy will live. But to be safe…"

Lady Faye prodded Dexter with her chilled finger. Mandark found he couldn't wretch free from her iron grip, and as he struggled, a second hand wrapped around his free wrist. A warm grip, a familiar grip, Mandark knew this feeling. He whipped around as Dexter cracked his eye open.  
Princess Norako was trying to free Mandark, eyes set on Dexter, as if she'd get to him next.

And that's when the rug was pulled from underneath the two boys.

A/N: You're probably wondering why it took me so long to write this chapter, which, currently, runs about two pages in length. Well, I'll tell you why – FINALS. Yes I had to take finals, which halted much of my output on this story. But fear not, I'm back on task. Yay…

A/N 2: And if it seems horribly anti-climatic, well… it's not the end. We still have nine more worlds, remember?

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Laboratory, and all allusions to a certain Disney movie are pure… coincidence… (looks around and notices Shirt Guy Dom on the roof with a sniper rifle) Oh shit.


	4. A Hole in the World

**A Hole in the World**

Mandark landed on his rump again. He couldn't figure out HOW the two of them had managed to rip themselves from the freakish Arabian world, but he was grateful.

Dexter raised himself off of the gravel. Apparently the two of them were in a street. Streetlamps, thin and spindly, towered over the two boys, dumping light onto the street below. In the eerie light, Dexter's red hair resembled a shock of lightning.

"Maybe I died," Dexter hypothesized. "That would probably set off a reaction within my device. I made it so that I couldn't be mortally injured…"

"But now the question is… did you really die?" Mandark questioned as he observed that his clothes had gone back to normal. He choked on his words after noticing that his arms had grown as twig-like as the oppressive streetlamps. His legs were the same as his arms, and his head felt huge upon his body.

Mandark frantically looked at Dexter. His body had ballooned in size, but his legs were ridiculously thin. Mandark shook his head quickly, rattling his eyeballs in the process. He felt a pressure right between his eyes, and clutched his forehead in agony.

"Where are we?" Mandark managed to murmur.

Dexter's spectacles rose to the cluster of invasive lamps. "…The slums."

"The slums." Mandark gaped at Dexter. "Any other potentially life-threatening places in this stupid gadget?! And, while we're on that tangent, WHY would you PUT life-threatening locales in this stupid gadget?!"

Dexter rolled his eyes. "Like I would tell you."  
"If I'm going to die, I'd like to know!" Mandark demanded just as cold metal slammed against his forehead. He fell to the ground, unconscious. Dexter tried to scream, but the assailant grabbed Dexter by his hair, hoisted Mandark over their shoulder, and took off.

Dexter felt the wind blasting into his eyes – the attacker was running quite fast. Mandark's skeletal arms flailed about aimlessly, and Dexter had to feel some pity towards him, although it was Mandark's fault in the end.

The boys' attacker kicked open a rotting purple door on a bizarre-looking building. It was so peppered with bullet holes that the house resembled less of a building than a bunker. The floor was hard and frozen, something Dexter learned after the aggressor tossed him onto the ground. Mandark was given a destroyed couch.

"My God, this is not good…" the assailant muttered in a decidedly female voice. Dexter's eyes widened with shock as her face came into plain view.

He had to keep his voice from yelling out.

"I thought you were… someone else," the face of Ellen Rourke, blonde school prima donna and overall psychopath, cooed sympathetically. Ellen Rourke wasn't one for sympathy. She'd tried multiple times to ruin Nora's life, not to mention Natalie's, and Dee-Dee's; Ellen wasn't one for kindness, or selflessness, or anything similar to that. Seeing her so concerned about her misdeed was interesting to Dexter.

Mandark was breathing, but a trickle of blood ran down the bridge of his nose. Ellen put a grimy hand to her mouth. Dexter was taken aback once again – the Ellen he knew would never have a soiled hand, never mind one without a manicure. His own creation was shocking him.

Ellen immediately busied herself wiping Mandark's face down. Her limbs were as stick-like as Mandark's, and her thin frame looked completely emaciated, compared to Mandark's healthy one. In fact, Mandark looked downright attractive, lying there on the couch, breathing softly…

Dexter gulped down some spit. What on EARTH was that?! Now his resolve to leave the slums was even stronger. It bred dangerous thoughts.

Ellen shook some flecks of blood off of the back of her hand, sighing with relief. "At least he'll be all right." She turned to Dexter. "I'm really sorry… I thought your friend was Debu. He has the same color hair as her. I'm Ellen."

Dexter shook her dirty hand. "Dexter. That's Mandark."

Ellen nodded. "I'm surprised you had the nerve to walk around after dark. Everyone knows that Debu's on the loose."

"Debu." Dexter mulled it over in his head before realizing – of course. Nora Debussi. Debu, a portmanteau of her last name. "By on the loose…"

Ellen gaped at him.

"I'm not from this town. Mandark and I are trying to find a friend," Dexter quickly lied.

"Well, chances are if your friend is lost, Debu killed them," Ellen said emotionlessly. "She just escaped from the sanatorium a day or two ago, and she's been terrorizing the town since then. The police are baffled, but I'm not." Ellen's face soured as she tossed an automatic pistol onto a cluttered coffee table. "The Organization sees all."

"Very _1984._"

Mandark had awoken, evidently, and was now staring, bleary-eyed, at a dim blue fluorescent bulb on the ceiling. His fingers twitched at random intervals. "You said your name was Ellen?"

"Ellen Rourke, member number 190-23 of the Organization," Ellen rattled off. "Are you a member?"

"I'm just looking for a friend," Mandark echoed, looking around the hopelessly battered home. "This Debu woman… how can you be so sure that she's murdering people?"

"The bodies," Ellen responded point-blank.

"Bodies?" Dexter and Mandark said together.

"Two men, a woman, and one so mutilated that we can't figure out what it was," Ellen explained coldly. "We need to find her so that this will end and everything will be moderately safe again."

"Moderately safe," Mandark murmured. "Yeah, okay…"

He interlaced his fingers, his spindly disjointed fingers, and looked at Dexter. Dexter looked back at him. They both stood simultaneously.

"Thank you, Miss Ellen, but we really need to find our friend," Dexter told her. Ellen's jaw dropped at least four inches. Mandark nodded.

"Now that we know about this killer… we figure finding her is our top priority," Mandark agreed. He shook Ellen's shaking hand, not looking at her wide, fearful eyes. Dexter, too, avoided her eyes – they were pained enough to convince anyone to stay, not run out into the streets. But both Dexter and Mandark could feel how imperative it was to find Nora.

As they walked out of Ellen's dilapidated shed of a house, they only had to look at each other to realize they were on the same page. Finding Nora might help them piece together the mystery of these worlds.

A/N: First off, many thanks to rachelprue for being my beta for this chapter, and hopefully the rest of the story. Her comments really cleaned up the writing. 3!

A/N 2: And now for a Very Special AN. I'd like to talk for a bit about Nora Debussi, since there's much confusion about her character all of a sudden. She is, and always will be, an original character I created in mid-2004 for the Dexter's Laboratory fandom, and was never in the television series. Since some new fanfic writers think she's canon (to which I'm all, really? My writing was that good?), I figured it was an issue that needed to be addressed. In the future, anyone wishing to use Nora in any of their stories should PM me for permission – I'll most likely give it to you, unless you're planning on writing a lemon.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Lab, no way, no how.


	5. Invasion

**Invasion**

"I don't think getting hurt gets us out of these worlds," Mandark finally said as the two of them wandered down a lonely, dark alley. A cat swished out of sight, and hazy, blue smoke plumed over their heads. It was vaguely reminiscent of being stuck in an Eighties music video, with a decidedly more sinister edge. Dexter grunted, which Mandark took as a sign of agreement. The lanky boy opened his mouth to speak, but Dexter cut him off.

"Obviously it doesn't, Mandark," Dexter sneered. "Ellen pummeled you, yet here we are. Something else in the Arabian world got us here."

"Excellent job on the set design, by the way," Mandark complimented, almost as an aside. For whatever reason, Dexter valued the compliment, and got all riled up.

"Well, I used a lot of literary and cinematographic settings as starting points for my designs of each world, save one, but I won't tell you about that yet, let you find out for yourself." Dexter, in his gloating, was so passionately happy that even the humid air and the depressing surroundings couldn't put a damper on his mood. "For example, this world was inspired by those post-apocalyptic science fiction movies and dystopian gothic comic books."  
"A mixture of the two?" Mandark clarified.

"Yes, a mixture."

"So where does the science fiction come in?" Mandark wondered before he heard the ever-familiar sound of a gun cocking. It rang behind his ears. Dexter jumped backwards and stared up at a gangly woman, who was standing on a fence behind Mandark. Her frame stood straight, but the wind was blowing her backwards like a cat-o-nine-tails by a river. The wide full moon cast a sickly light upon her person.

Mandark narrowed his eyes at Dexter's recognition. "It's Nora, isn't it?"

"Use my real name, fool, and DIE!" the girl screeched, pounding him with the butt of the gun. Dexter watched Mandark crumple into a heap, thinking about how truly ironic it was for his nemesis to be felled in the exact same manner twice in a row. The thought made him snicker.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM, THEN?!" Nora screamed, aiming the gun at Dexter. And this time she looked like she wasn't going to bother with the gun butt. The bluish smoke around her black hair created a haze about her eyes, which were coated with spider-webbed red veins – completely and utterly bloodshot.

"N-no p-p-problem, Miss… Miss, ah, um –"

Nora dropped the gun on the ground angrily, swallowing spittle. "Ah, you're just a kid. A stupid kid, out with a stupid friend. Stupid, stupid, stupid…"

Dexter raised an eyebrow. How'd he manage to program such a passive-aggressive AI unit?

Recalling that Nora was probably the key to escaping, Dexter smiled at her. "We were actually looking for you, Debu."  
Within seconds the gun was pointed back in Dexter's face. The barrel touched the nosepiece of his glasses, pushing them into the bridge of his nose.

"Calling me so FAMILIARLY, eh? You've got guts, kid, BUT YOU'RE NOT SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP AWAY FROM TROUBLE, ARE YOU?!?" Nora bellowed, her voice alone sending Dexter scurrying away.

Nora sighed, watching the disproportionate youth barrel down the alleyway. "Should've killed him."

She turned her attention to the lump of a boy at her heeled feet, the blood on her shoes rubbing off on his face as she nudged him.

"Why didn't he take this SACK OF A MAN?!" Nora yelled at herself before turning to her right. "No, I'm not going to kill this, what's your problem?" She whirled around behind her. "You're lying to me again. This kid is good, I can tell." Pause. "I DO need the blood. It's needed, oh, so badly, so badly…" Nora shook her head. "No, I'm not listening to you. Mimi's correct, you aren't! YOU AREN'T AT ALL! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT **UP**!"

"You're a schizophrenic…!"

Nora whipped around. Dexter stood there, frightened beyond belief.

"The screaming – I heard it a street away! You really DO need to be locked up!" Dexter murmured, his voice cracking just as Nora's brain did the same. She slammed into Dexter, pinning him into the wall.

"I don't care what you think!" Nora whispered, an inch away from his face. "I NEED TO KEEP IT AWAY FROM ME!"

"What's IT?!" Dexter screeched. "WHAT IS 'IT'?!"

Nora was busying herself with a bag of nails. One swift motion – BAM! Dexter's skin was effectively punctured, his left palm attached to the wall behind him, his arm at a 90-degree angle. Dexter shrieked, dissolving into a mess of a person.

"My God, oh God, I'm TRYING TO HELP! WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF?!" Dexter babbled.

Mandark twitched on the ground behind Nora, evidently roused by the screaming. His fingers clawed up the dirt below uneasily. Dexter was able to smile through the torture at this. He began to make choked noises, trying to hold back pained yelling as Mandark doubled over on the ground, trying to stand.

Nora whipped about and noticed this. Immediately she ripped the nail out of Dexter – he screamed yet again. The blood pouring from his hand splattered down his shirtfront and onto the ground, mixing with the condensing stagnant water and forming a reddish vapor low to the ground. Dexter ripped fabric off of his shirt to create a makeshift tourniquet for himself, trying to figure out HOW he could have programmed torture into his device.

Meanwhile, Nora was clutching her head and moaning in anguish, occasionally punctuating the whimpering with angry statements directed to people Dexter couldn't see. Mandark had finally stood up, weak in the knees and paler than the moon above him. His hands clenched and unclenched rapidly, and his eyes were focusing in and out.

"Mandark!" Dexter grinned. "Mandark, oh thank God you're alive – we have to get out of -!"

"NEITHER OF YOU ARE LEAVING!" Nora suddenly roared, seizing Dexter by his good arm and pulling him to her side. "Especially YOU, my short, rotund friend."

Dexter began to hyperventilate, and Mandark was in such a state of shock that he couldn't do anything. Without warning, Nora slammed the backside of her fist into Dexter's temple. Dexter fell with a deafening thud, a trail of blood leaking onto Mandark's shoes. Mandark's eyes darted from Dexter to Nora, who was laughing in a disturbing way.

Mandark pressed himself to the blood-splattered fence behind him. He gaped at Dexter. There was no way Dexter could be living. None at all… He was basically swimming in his own blood. So why wasn't anything happening?

Mandark had no choice but to look up at Nora. He willed himself to believe it was her – a version of her. They had the same face, freckled and thin. And the same hair, albeit it was usually nicer kept. Her eyes were still dazzling pools of green. Mandark swallowed uneasily and took a cautious step forward.

"Why can't we go, then?" Mandark inquired gently.

Nora stared at him. "I can't tell you that."

"I think you could, if you wanted to," Mandark noted, his voice calm and collected. He couldn't let his emotions show right now… Dexter did that and ended up dead. Besides, if it was Nora, Mandark would know how to get to her.

Nora stared at him confusedly, eyes narrowed. "If I wanted to?"

"Yes. You just want to hide behind the two friends in your mind."

"You don't understand," Nora whimpered. She was breaking. "They'll hurt me if I don't listen to them. They'll tear apart my head!"  
"Have they ever done that before?" Mandark questioned.

Nora drew herself up to her full height, staring, wide-eyed, at Mandark. She'd never thought about that before.

"No," Nora responded shakily. "My head's never… I don't get headaches."

Seeing Nora's trademark innocence – finally – made Mandark relax a little. The face staring at him was just Nora, albeit a blood-splattered, disturbed version of her. Mandark could ignore the blood. One of the reasons he fell for her was her unflinching love of darkness, anyway.

He stepped towards her. "…Why'd you kill my friend, then?"

"The thing. The thing's going to come…"

Nora cut off. Mandark was standing over her. She twisted her neck upward, clutching a blood-coated nail in her right hand. Nora stared into his eyes, the same vacant expression occupying them.

She dropped the nail.

A/N: If you, like my beta Rachel-prue, reacted to the last line with a 'WTF?!', don't worry. I intended it to end like that. If you somehow think that you've revealed the secret of the entire story with that line, chances are that you're wrong.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Laboratory. Maybe I should say JTHM, too, as it was a big inspiration for this chapter.


	6. Two Pained Eyes

**Two Pained Eyes**

Nora hung up the phone again. Poised on her bed like a woman faking purity while waiting for sin, she stared at her cell phone's screen. Indeed, she'd called Mandark. But he wasn't answering. It wasn't like him to not be online AND to not answer his phone. She let the strap of her blue nightgown slip down her pale shoulder, lost in her own thoughts.

She ran her fingers through her dark hair, disheveled from rolling around impatiently on her bed, from pacing in her room, from sticking her blue BlackBerry close to her ear. Where could Mandark BE?

Usually he was there to talk, to giggle, to laugh, to whisper sweet promises into her ear, murmuring that as soon as he turned eighteen, he'd sweep her off her feet and take those two final steps. He never explained what those two steps were. Nora implicitly knew one of them was marriage. She couldn't bring herself to even think of the other one without turning a lovely shade of blood red and sputtering incomprehensibly.

Nora never remembered any of her dreams anyway.

Tonight was a weird night. She couldn't get a hold of Dexter, either; Dee-Dee couldn't find him inside his lab. Nagging fear prodded at Nora's brain, but she shoved it aside to IM Natalie.

Nora logged onto her screen name, Eminem4Ever&Ever.

Before long, GirlFromIpanemaAge13 – Natalie Faye (who had since turned fourteen) – sent her a message.

GirlFromIpanemaAge13: "Where's lover boy? Don't you usually talk to him at this time of day? Night, I mean?"

Nora rolled her eyes. This was what she was afraid of. She blasted the Backstreet Boys' 'Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely' from her computer speakers and responded.

Eminem4Ever&Ever: "That's the thing. I don't know where he is."

GirlFromIpanemaAge13: "…Odd. Doesn't he usually tell you when he's going somewhere?"

Eminem4Ever&Ever: "Yeah. And he spends ten minutes saying goodbye and apologizing."

The bitterness was evident. Nora sighed. Maybe he just went to bed early. But he would have at least said good night. She would have twirled her hair and giggled seductively, wishing him the same. Then she'd collapse into her bed and slip into a peaceful sleep.

GirlFromIpanemaAge13: "…You still there? I know that usually you like to talk… "

Nora snapped out of it, blinking and taking in her surroundings quickly.

Eminem4Ever&Ever: "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine."

GirlFromIpanemaAge13: "Yeah? You won't be for long. Look at his away message."

Nora scrolled down her buddy list and rested her cursor on Mandark's screen name, BrokenBackpack678. She opened his away message, read it, and began to seethe.

_Off to foil Dexter's plans!_

Nora logged off and kicked the wall, her chair skittering away from her. No wonder he hadn't said anything… but the idiot had the gall to leave it as an AWAY MESSAGE?! Nora threw herself into her bed, crossing her arms and muttering angry words under her breath. She pointedly ignored the dent in the wall.

The only problems that Mandark and Nora had involved Dexter. Nora saw Dexter as a little brother, a person to trust. Mandark was still manically obsessed with humiliating him and destroying his laboratory. This would inevitably cause a minor clash, which usually involved Mandark and Nora glaring at each other wordlessly for an hour or so. Then Nora would break the silence with a really dumb joke, and the two would be back to normal.

But she'd never had reason to distrust Mandark. At the moment, she wasn't very happy with him, but she trusted that he was doing as he said.

She impulsively looked at her phone. No new messages. Nora rolled her eyes, sighed melodramatically and jumped off of the bed. She threw the bedcovers off of her bed, turned out the lights, and set herself down, drifting into a very nervous sleep.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Laboratory.

A/N: Sorry about the late post. I started my own Fairly Oddparents RolePlaying site, and it took up quite a bit of my time, what with all the administrative things that needed to be done. (Link's on my front page.) Anyway, I thought we needed a chapter of the real world, and talking about Nora and how she was doing seemed like the perfect segway. Thanks to Camilia for betaing, and being patient with me!


	7. And All That Jazz

**And All that Jazz**

Dexter opened his eyes, expecting to see himself lying, drenched, in a pool of his own blood. Instead he saw a white ceiling.

"Did they take me to the nuthouse, Mandark?" Dexter inquired.

No answer. Dexter turned his head to his right. There was a nightstand, with a clear vase stuffed with cheery yellow daffodils resting atop it. A half-open bureau revealed a number of suits on hangers, as well as some women's cocktail dresses. Dexter immediately turned his attention to the right, where a large glass window looked over a street teeming with Rolls-Royce limousines and glamorous blondes with pin-curls and luxurious fur coats. Dexter sat up.

Was this a new part of the slum? No, couldn't be. He remembered creating this world; he'd had a lot of fun with it. It was the world of 20s nightclubs, where everyone was glamorous and the locales were smoke-filled dens of flirtatious desire.

"Thank GOD you decided to get up," a cheerful voice called from a room directly adjacent to his bed. Dexter got up out of bed; he was wearing sweats and a wifebeater. So much for EVERYONE being glamorous.

Dee-Dee McPhearson poked her head out from the bathroom door, hair half-styled. "Come on, Dexter, we both know that Mr. Astronominov is impatient!"

Dexter raised an eyebrow as Dee-Dee disappeared back into the bathroom, still talking. "And especially today – of all the days to sleep in, Dexter! I moved in with you to make sure you didn't do anything stupid, like Mom asked me to, and the one day you act stupid is the one day we can't afford to do things like that!" Dee-Dee, once again, poked her head out at the completely confused Dexter. "You still have a hangover, don't you?" Dee-Dee sighed. "Of course you do. Remember? Tonight is when Mr. Mordecai comes to see my act. I mean, our act… the girls and I. You do remember who the girls are, right?"

Dexter nodded, having no idea what was going on. Act?

"Get in the shower!" Dee-Dee demanded, stepping out of the bathroom in her bra, a white slip, and tan nylons. Dexter bit his lip, holding back vomit – his sister was half-naked…

He jumped into the bathroom and took a shower, feeling that whatever Dee-Dee was gearing up for was important. But everything else didn't make any sense – Dexter, hung over? Douglas Mordecai, addressed as 'Mister'? Mr. Astronominov, Mandark, being punctual?

None of it made much sense, but Dexter decided to just throw himself into the moment and finish his shower as quickly as possible. He didn't want to ruin Dee-Dee's big night, whatever it entailed.

…

Mandark found himself slicking his hair back with grease, unable to fathom why he'd tacked an exact schedule on the wall adjacent to his bed. It'd proved very useful to getting him on task, but he couldn't find anyone in his apartment, or the hallway outside, to inform him _what _his varied scribblings meant. All he knew was that in ten minutes, he had to be at Apartment No. 400 on the eighth floor. He had no idea what floor _he himself _was on. Hopefully there was an elevator.

Mandark adjusted his crimson tie, recalling how random everything had seemed in those final moments in the slums. He'd stared down at Nora for a few seconds, wondering if he'd ever get home in time to give Nora a call and tell her all the things she wanted to hear. And then the world swirled into nothing.

If that wasn't anticlimactic, Mandark didn't know what was. The last thing he remembered was seeing Debu's right eye cloud with one single tear. It didn't make any sense. They escaped the Arabian world when Dexter crumpled on the ground, lifeless. But Dexter seemed dead in the slums, and escape came at a time so inconsequential that Mandark couldn't make ANY sense of it.

Either way, Mandark's main focus was going through this world relatively unharmed. He looked at himself in a cracked bathroom mirror, noting that his black pinstriped suit fit his thin frame perfectly. If he wasn't so modest, he'd have realized that he was handsome, desirable, even. Mandark just nodded at his reflection, walked out of his cramped apartment, and realized, once again, he had no idea where he was going.

Mandark checked his watch. He had eight minutes to be on floor eight. Thankfully, an old woman with tight curls and a large housedress hobbled out into the narrow corridor just as Mandark turned. A strand of black hair fell into his pale face as he darted after her.

"Ma'am! Ma'am?" Mandark cried.

The woman turned before giving a generous smile. "Why do you always call me that, Mr. Astronominov? I've told you time and time again, call me Arabella."  
Mandark blinked before nodding. "Sorry… Arabella. Old habits die hard, you know." Mandark swallowed his spit before launching into one of the most spectacular lies he'd ever told. "Well… you see, I got drunk last night. I know, I know… it's terrible, but I really can't remember what floor I'm on at the moment."

Arabella shrugged. "You don't get drunk too often… you're allowed your fun. After all, Miss Debussi seems ready to court you now. You must be delighted."

Mandark smiled lackadaisically. "Yes, most… most definitely."

_Miss Debussi must be Nora! _Mandark thought joyfully. Finally, a world where things were simple and clear!

"Well, you're on floor 7, dear. Room number 327, in case you don't know that either," Arabella grinned. She shuffled past Mandark, her green slippers clashing magnificently with her blue dress and black overcoat. Mandark smiled at her back. Cute little old woman.

He then ran up a flight of stairs at the end of the hall, and was shocked to find that the first door he hit was room 400. Convenient. Mandark glanced at his watch yet again, noticing the gold plating. Four minutes. Shrugging it off, he knocked on the door.

A scream immediately erupted from within, followed by some frenzied male and female yelling. Mandark's eyes widened as the door slammed open, revealing what could only be described as a goddess.

Mandark shook the thought from his head immediately. It was Dee-Dee. Just Dee-Dee. Never mind the fact that her red satin gown was making the back of Mandark's neck sweat. She stared blankly at Mandark before sighing.

"You're early," Dee-Dee scowled. "My stupid brother's still putting on his pants."

"Something I don't want to see," Mandark admitted.

"I heard that!" a voice from within yelled. Definitely Dexter. Mandark sniggered before shrugging.

"I'm punctual."

Dee-Dee glared at him. "Uh-huh. Sure. I'm sure Nora loves that about you." She whipped her head around, blonde pigtails expertly curled and lying across her collarbone. Mandark gulped. Really bad time to be regaining feelings for her. So Mandark busied his mind with the dirtiest Nora-centric fantasy he could muster up while Dee-Dee wandered out of eyeshot.

"Are you done?"

"Yes, why?"

"Mr. Astronominov is here."

"Already?"

"Yep."

A small thud, and then two figures appeared in the door, apparently livid.

"…Is being early a bad thing?" Mandark wondered.

"Yes," both McPhearsons growled.

"…Oh. I'll show up five minutes late next time," Mandark grumbled.

"It's amazing that Nora finds you attractive," Dee-Dee muttered before a bouncy smile replaced her twitching frown. "Okay, let's go!"

Dee-Dee led the way down the stairs, leaving Dexter and Mandark to reunite.

"So where are we going?" Mandark hissed.

"The Common Room," Dexter responded in a low voice. "Across the street. It's where Dee-Dee and the rest of her friends perform. Douglas Mordechai is a talent agent."

"Mordechai? That idiot?" Mandark blurted out.

Dee-Dee turned around quickly. "No one likes him, I know, but he's powerful. He signed Miss Kelly and got her a recording contract… he might do the same for us."

Mandark smirked, glad his faux pas was so easily glazed over. He tilted his head to Dexter, sure to keep his voice at a low whisper as he walked past the third floor. "Who else is in Dee-Dee's little group?"

"I don't know," Dexter replied.

"How do you NOT know who's in these worlds?"

"I put the characters into the machine," Dexter quietly explained. "The machine does the rest."

Mandark stared at Dexter in awe. He couldn't believe how advanced this machine was, in all honesty. No wonder Dexter acted just as shocked as Mandark every time.

"…Well, Nora's obviously…" Dexter offered.

"Well, yeah," Mandark nodded as he opened the apartment lobby's door. A blast of cool night air hit Mandark, blowing that strand of black hair across his forehead. Dexter adjusted his hat, and Dee-Dee grabbed at the edge of her dress, curls floating in the inky darkness.

"So… today will make or break us," Dee-Dee mused.

"Yeah," Dexter nodded.

"Break a leg, then," Mandark offered.

Dee-Dee smiled bitterly, looking at her manicured nails. "Well… that may be the only way to impress someone with a heart of stone."

A/N: I know I haven't updated in a while. Reason number one was my psychotic fixation on writing 'Softly Into the Dark Night' (SHAMELESS PLUG!), the There Will Be Blood fanfic I recently posted. Reason two, same as Camilia, was STAR testing. Sigh…

Anyway, this chapter starts off my favorite arc in the story: the glamorous (or are they?) twenties. This is because there's a chapter that challenged me deeply when I wrote it, and I couldn't be prouder of it. It's not this chapter, by the way. I was inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby', so there you go.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Lab, Nora is an OC, whatever.


	8. Hufflepuff's Common Room

Hufflepuff's Common Room

**Hufflepuff's Common Room**

Dexter and Mandark sat at a table adorned in white linen, letting the haze of cigarette smoke wash over them. Neither of them felt like it would be appropriate to join in the drinking or the smoking or the other so-called glamorous activity of the day. Raised in the future, they noted the disastrous after-effects of both activities, and neither was willing to risk their genius in order to look cool.

Mandark folded his hands upon the table, ignoring two rather tall, pretty brunette women giggling and staring at him. A vein throbbed in his temple.

"There's lots of easy women here, isn't there?" Mandark muttered to Dexter.

"If I knew what that meant, I'd give an answer," Dexter shot back.

"Don't tell me you don't know what it means to be easy."

"…No."

"It means you'll have sex with anyone."

"Oh. So I'm not easy."

Mandark eyed him curiously, almost afraid to figure out the thought process going on. "…What?!"

Dexter remained pensive and ignored Mandark. Mandark snorted and rolled his eyes. The two girls swooned at him. Mandark felt like snapping at them to get away. The act was due to start any minute now, and Mandark didn't want to miss a minute of it.

Dexter looked like he felt the same. Mandark lightly punched him in the shoulder, smirking.

"Maybe you'll see someone gorgeous here," Mandark offered. "Someone worth dating, eh?"  
Dexter glared at Mandark. "Because you're such the expert on women."

Mandark pursed his lips. "More so than you."

"Already bickering, I see."

The two of them looked up to see a sandy blonde man, with a crisp black suit and a red tie. He oozed sleazy charm, and Mandark immediately took a dislike to him. It was understandable – after all, he was clearly based on Carter Richardson.

Dexter nearly puked when he saw Carter, but Mandark just eyed him curiously.

"Nice to see you, too," Mandark said coldly. He prayed that his disdain wasn't out of place.

Clearly it wasn't. Carter's facial expression didn't change. "Aw, can't we get over our problems? I didn't mean to forcibly kiss Miss Debussi."

"Forcibly kiss." Dexter rolled his eyes and hit his head on the table. "You're a real piece of work."

"Better un-slump," Carter frowned. "The Diamonds are up in two minutes. And it wouldn't look good to Mr. Mordechai if the Diamonds' manager is hung over."

Dexter and Mandark watched Carter's retreating back with matching defiant stares, silently cursing him.

"What a jerk," Mandark finally spat out.

Dexter was about to speak when the curtain on the stage rose, revealing a shimmering silver backdrop and five girls, standing in front of microphones, backs to the audience. The one in red was obviously Dee-Dee, and a girl with lightly curled black hair and an emerald dress appeared to be Nora. There was another blonde whose hair was done into pin-curls and whose dress was a deep shade of purple; it could have been Ellen, they weren't sure. A fourth girl with dark tan skin and a golden silky number was definitely Natalie Faye.

The fifth girl sent Mandark reeling. Brown hair with black tips, pinned back into a Chinese bun, and a dress of pale black. There was no questioning, especially when the five girls pivoted on their heels and showed their faces to the audience.

Dee-Dee was on the far right, and to her left was Natalie Faye. In the middle was Nora herself, looking radiant and giving Mandark way worse thoughts than Dee-Dee did. To Nora's left was Ellen Rourke, narrowed eyes and blue eye-shadow making her best features pop. And to the far left was none other than Susan, Mandark's feminine side and – until recently – inhabitant of his mind and his mind alone.

Mandark stared at Dexter. "Who's that on the left end?!"

Dexter shrugged. "I found a drawing of her in my sister's room, just thought I'd use her."

"And her name?" Mandark inquired, thoroughly scared. How would Dee-Dee be able to draw a picture of someone he wasn't even sure existed in his head? Yet another question to add to the growing pile.

"Uh… I think I named her Emily," Dexter responded uncertainly.

Mandark nodded blankly, noting the tinkle of a grand piano. The whole set seemed so… elegant. He was shocked by the appearance of Susan – completely mind-bending; he'd have to ask about that later – but he was far more captivated with Nora.

She was more beautiful than he'd ever seen her. Her black hair fell along her collarbone, partially covering up the plunging V-neck of her dress. A diamond brooch was pinned where the fabric straps over her breasts met, holding the dress together, and Nora's chin was pointed towards it, red lips closed and calm. Her eyes, lined with green shadow that matched her dress, were just as calm as her facial expression. Like she was born to be up there.

And Mandark was taken aback when a voice other than Nora's began to sing. It was Natalie. She was an amazing singer anyway…

_"Love is blind, as far as the eye can see…" _Natalie swayed with the music's rhythm, her hair rippling slowly, entrancingly. _"Deep and meaningless, words to me…"_

Dee-Dee suddenly gripped her microphone gently. _"Easy, lover; I need a friend…" _Her eyes closed, emotion overwhelming her. _"Road to nowhere… twists and turns, but will this ever end?"_

Then came a voice. A voice from nowhere, exploding onto the scene. _"Yes my dear, you know he pleases me!"_

_"Pleases me," _the other four girls echoed Nora.

Mandark was shocked. Nora couldn't sing. He'd heard her. She was terrible. She couldn't carry a tune in a crate, much less a bucket. Dexter was obviously fantasizing there, but for some reason, Mandark believed the fantasy. He believed that Nora was really up there, belting about how someone was… ahem… pleasing her.

_"But short-term solution ain't no revolution – there's just no release for me!" _Nora finished before launching into the chorus with the other girls.

Someone with red stringy hair sat down next to Mandark, but he wasn't paying attention. His eyes now moved to Susan… she was sure to sing soon.

_"Too much of one thing is bad enough… but something's coming over me to make me wonder – if too much of one thing is just as tough," _the girls cooed. _"I need to know the way to feel to keep me satisfied…"_

Next was Ellen Rourke, caressing her microphone like a lover might. _"Unwrapped myself from around your finger… hold me too tight, or left to linger…"_

_"Something fine," _Susan breathed, her voice smoky and dark. Kind of how Mandark sounded when he sang. Except he was crap, too. Dexter had done an amazing job in stretching disbelief, that was all Mandark had to say. _"Built to last… Slipped up there – I guess we're running out of time too fast!"_

_"Yes, my dears, you know he soothes me!" _Nora chimed in again.

_"Moves me," _the other girls agreed.

_"There's no complication," _Nora continued, taking a step forward. _"There's no explanation – It's just a groove in me -!"_

"So… these are the Diamonds, then?" the man murmured. Mandark turned and realized that it was Douglas Mordechai next to him. He flushed, embarrassed. He should have said something.

"Oh yes, Mr. Mordechai," Mandark enthusiastically responded. "I'm so sorry I wasn't paying attention…"

"Not a problem…" Douglas shrugged. "You're just nervous about the girls doing their best. But that's clearly not a problem with them."

Mandark had to agree. Even Nora, who was normally talent-less, was amazing. Not a note out of place.

Nora's voice ripped across the club again. _"What part of no don't you understand?"_

Nora appeared to be looking across the room at someone. Mandark's eyes moved over to where Nora's were staring angrily. Carter Richardson. But then her eyes moved again as she sang.

_"I need a man…" _Mandark and Nora's eyes met for a brief second before she looked back to Carter.

_"Not a boy who thinks he can -!"_

Nora looked down at the ground before bringing her head back up. _"A boy who think he can!"_

As the other girls sang the chorus in the background, Nora held a high note for longer than was possible. At least, that's what Mandark thought. Much as he hated to admit it, Dexter's machine was amazing. Mandark wanted to reach out and touch Nora...

"Quite the song they have," Douglas noted. "They have four more, correct?"

"Yes, five-song set," Mandark nodded.

_But somehow I doubt I won't stop being amazed._

…

"Baby!"

Dee-Dee threw her arms around a familiar-looking boy as Dexter, Mandark, and Douglas wove their way backstage. Dexter was grinning very obviously; Emily was toasting Ellen, both with shot glasses filled with gin. Dee-Dee and her paramour were chatting eagerly, and Douglas had wandered up to Nora. Dexter noticed that Mandark was smiling at everyone, but kept his eye always near Nora.

Dexter seethed. This was supposed to be HIS fantasy world, not Mandark's. Of course, he didn't know that, so there was no stopping the simpering simpleton. Dexter wandered over to Douglas' side, just in time to hear the end of his sentence.

"…Especially that first song," he told her. "Your group has such energy about it."

"Thank you, sir," Nora smiled, completely modest. "You honestly think we can do well?"

"Think? I know," Douglas asserted, lighting up a cigarette. Dexter winced but grinned at Nora. She grinned back.

"Dexter, this is Mr. Mordechai. He thinks that the Diamonds have a future," Nora said airily, almost as if she couldn't believe it herself. "Isn't that great?"

But she, too, seemed distracted.

Douglas stepped away to talk to Dee-Dee, who was more of the de facto leader of the Diamonds and knew more about what signing a contract would entail. Dexter took the opportunity to sidle closer to Nora.

"Worried about Carter?" Dexter mused.

"Of course," Nora whimpered.

"I can handle him."

"Just like Mandark handled him?" Nora questioned. "You men are so stupid. I mean, Mandark's got that lovely bruise on his thigh because of Carter."

Dexter frowned before his eyes widened. "He – how do you -?"

He was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open. Nora's eyes widened. Dexter's head swung around and he saw something… weird.

It was Carter Richardson, but instead of frowning, he was grinning.

Grinning at Emily.

A/N: Yes, I'm throwing a bone to the original 'Something I Believe In' fans by including the OC Susan (or, in Dexter's world, Emily). Susan was a character I adored, yet could never find a use for half the time. In fact, at times I find her easier to write for than Nora, mostly because she acts JUST LIKE MANDARK.

A/N 2: Find the song that the Diamonds sing familiar? That's because it was one of the Spice Girls' biggest US/UK hits, 'Too Much'. It has a very vintage feel, so I threw it into the mix after realizing the song I wanted to use apparently didn't exist.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dexter's Laboratory. The current list of my Dexter's Lab OCs: Nora, Susan/Emily, Ellen, Carter, and Natalie. (There just aren't enough characters in Dexter's Lab to create a fully fleshed-out story.)


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